technology with intention
Posts tagged Apple
GAM review
975 days
by Jac de Haan
in 8th grade
8th grade students dug back into their memory banks to remember some useful facts about 3 of our most talked-about companies: Google, Apple and Microsoft. Teams competed to gain the most points for accurate answers.
| Apple | Microsoft | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded by | Larry Page and Sergey Brin | Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne | Bill Gates and Paul Allen |
| Founded in | 1996 | 1976 | 1975 |
| Founded location | Stanford University, CA | Los Altos, CA | Albuquerque, New Mexico |
| HQ in | Mountain View, CA | Cupertino, CA | Redmond, WA |
| Web browser | Chrome | Safari | Internet Explorer |
| Operating system | Chrome OS | OSX | Windows |
| productivity | Google Apps | iWork | Office |
| Stock ticker | goog | appl | msft |
| revenue | $26B | $54B | $62B |
| employees | 22M | 37M | 89M |
| revenue per employee | $1.2M | $1.4M | $702K |
| price per share | $482 | $268 | $25 |
| shares | 318M | 913M | 8.6B |
And we’re back…
982 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
6th grade students visited the TechLab for the first time this year while 7th and 8th graders explored the recent changes and updates to the school. Our lab has new all-in-one ThinkCentres running Windows 7 and a pair of iMacs. The server room was reconfigured and the BricLab is ready for tinkerers.
The 6th grade took a few minutes to look at the new iPod Touch that was released yesterday. In fact, these words and the attached photos were created using only the Touch!
Welcome back!
Tech in the News updates
1091 days
7th grade is focused on technology in the news. The last few weeks we’ve been following the upcoming iPhone, Facebook privacy updates, and a lawsuit against Google for Street View information.
iPhone updates:
iPod touch with camera shows up in Vietnam
Apple loses a second 4th gen iPhone, new insights discovered
iPhone Finder Regrets His ‘Mistake’
Police Raid Gizmodo Editor’s House, Confiscate Computers
Facebook updates:
Facebook Users Plan to Quit the Service on May 31
Senators’ letter to Facebook
Facebook and Others Caught Sending User Data to Advertisers
Google Street View troubles:
Google faces U.S., German probes on data collection
Apple in the news – iPhone 4G (HD?) & profits
1122 days
by Jac de Haan
in 7th Grade
Spirited 7th grade conversation today, as students tracked the latest developments in the case of the iPhone 4G.
We started by tracking Apple’s stock price this year, beginning with the iPad announcement and following through until yesterday’s report that Apple made over 3 billion dollars in the last quarter.
Using Bing’s finance charts and Google’s time-related search results, we mapped increasing share price and product announcements over the last 3 years. We found a clear trend – stock prices rise between the announcement of a new product and it’s actual launch.
Also, we realized that much of the pre-launch marketing around Apple products is free – news outlets and bloggers share stories and compete to scoop each other with rumors and insider (mis)information. This is great news for Apple, since they don’t have to spend all of their money to get the word out.
Now to the rumor of the week – an Apple employee supposedly left a prototype of the new iPhone (to be released this summer) in a California bar. The device was sold to Gizmodo, which has dedicated an entire portion of their site to stories about this gadget. This creates more buzz for Apple as other news outlets report on Gizmodo’s reporting.
Students used Google’s real-time “updates” to monitor how many stories are bouncing around the blogosphere and Twitter channels about this story. While there is a bump in traffic, we don’t think that this story is enough to sustain interest through the summer. What else will Apple tell us about the new product to keep news outlets interested?
Some students wondered if Apple had “lost” the iPhone on purpose to try and get free advertising from bloggers, newspapers, television and radio. Some bloggers suggest that Gizmodo got punked by Apple.
One class had an unexpected find during class today, a webpage that simultaneously searches Google and Bing, displaying results side-by-side. In Firefox, you can actaully set http://www.google-vs-bing.com/ as your default search engine if desired.
Independent Project Spotlight: Jamal
1131 days
In conjunction with a month-long language arts identity writing project, 7th grade students have chosen independent creative projects to support their words. These projects have taken on a variety of forms, all sharing personal experience through vision, sound or touch.
Jamal taught himself to use Garageband to create an original rap about his life and how it has shaped his identity. Judge the results for yourself:
iPad a great Spring Break, thank you
1135 days
by Jac de Haan
in Reference
This blog post is spoken directly into Dragon Dictation. I am Using the iPad microphone to capture my voice and the app to convert my words into written text.
Dragon Dictation (available for iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch) is a free application and it could be a useful tool for students and adults find it difficult to begin writing but are comfortable sharing ideas verbally. To use the app, you need to be connected via wifi or 3G.
Apple iPad testing
1177 days
by Jac de Haan
in Projects
Students got their hands on an Apple iPad today – weeks before the product has officially been launched! We did some testing and compared the size of this new device with an iPod and a laptop. Overall impression was that the screen seems small for web surfing, but it is a fun gizmo.
If you are interested in trying out the iPad for free, follow this link for access 
iPad deconstruction
1202 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
The 6th grade spent the period deconstructing the marketing around Apple’s new iPad announcement.
We started with the official video that greets visitors to the Apple website. What does Apple want us to believe about the new device? How do they use music, backgrounds, demonstrations and interviews to convince us?
Next we broke up into groups to figure out if the iPad is a technological evolution or revolution. Every group clearly agrees that this is merely an evolution – as Abe pointed out, “it’s just an iPod Touch that won’t fit in your pocket.”
Could the iPad be a replacement for your home computer?
Where do we go from here?
1251 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
The 6th grade concluded Internet boot camp this week. Everyone is clear on why Billings provides computers and Internet access and their responsibilities as users. We took a moment to define some common terms that will be used throughout their middle school technology experiences.
Student definitions:
| Web broswer | an application used to connect to the internet. |
| Application (app, program) |
software that can be installed on a computer to complete a task. |
| Software | a set of instructions telling a computer what to do when it receives input from a keyboard or mouse. |
| Search engine | a website you visit using a web browser so that you can find information on the internet. |
The difference between a web browser and search engine has been murky in the past for some students. We reinforced our Microsoft Excel skills from STeM class to build a comparison chart:
| Company | Web Browser | Search Engine |
| Microsoft | Internet Explorer | Bing |
| Chrome | ||
| Apple | Safari | x |
| Yahoo! | x | Yahoo! |
| Mozilla | Firefox | x |
| Wolfram | x | WolframAlpha |
| Opera | Opera | x |
Tech in the News – Verizon v. AT&T
1262 days
by Jac de Haan
in 7th Grade
7th grade has been using tech all year to support LA and Science…today was a day to kick back and talk about all the amazing things that happen in the world of technology.
Today we talked about the mighty battle between Verizon and AT&T. AT&T has the iPhone, and pays Apple money for the right to have this cool device on their network only. Verizon has the best customer satisfaction rating for service (according to Consumer Reports) as well as a much larger 3G network in the USA. AT&T is mad about Verizon ads that point this out, so they are suing Verizon and they also made some new tv commercials starring Luke Wilson that say “AT&T is better”.
We talked about tons of interesting marketing ploys, competitive negotiations, and operating system constraints. The most lively discussions focused on:
- Cell phone companies have claimed colors as their own – Sprint=Yellow, T-Mobile=Pink, Verizon=Red, AT&T=Blue&Orange
- Cell phone companies are really becoming data service companies – most people use their phones for way more than just making calls
- Verizon just introduced Droid, a new phone that is supposed to compete with the iPhone. It runs Google’s Android 2.0 operating system.
Verizon attacks AT&T’s 3G service coverage
AT&T fights back
